Women's Basketball Tournament Presented by U.S. Bank Begins Tonight

LA GRANDE, Ore. - The Cascade Collegiate Conference will kick off the start of the 2017-18 Women's Basketball Championship presented by U.S. Bank later today with four quarterfinal games at various campus sites throughout the conference. Fans can follow the action on the CCC webpage tournament site- Click Here or at CCCWEBTV for live webcast.

Top-seeded and regular season champion Eastern Oregon will be at home as they host eighth-seed Evergreen. The Mountaineers claimed the No. 1 seed after an undefeated conference slate at 20-0 and as a result locked up the first AQ to the NAIA National Tournament.

Eastern led the conference in points per game at 89.4 as well as on defense, giving up only 56.2 points per game. Maya Ah You Dias leads the Mountaineers with a conference high 18.9 points per game. As a team EOU is extremely proficient on offense leading the league in field goal percentage at 50.8 and three point percentage at an impressive 47.3 percent. All told Eastern leads the league in 12 of 21 statistical categories.

At 8-12 Evergreen assumes the final seed in the tournament after tiebreaker criteria with Warner Pacific University and Northwest University was applied. The Geoducks are led by Alexcis Higginbotham who averages 13 points and six rebounds. Evergreen is averaging 67.7 points per outing and is ranked third in blocked shots rejecting 3.6 per contest.

Seventh-seeded Warner Pacific heads south to second-seed Southern Oregon to battle a Raider team that is 14-2 since late December.

Southern Oregon, behind Remi Mejia and Toria Bradford are second in conference scoring at 79.3 points per game and held CCC opponents to 61 points per game. Mejia averages 17.9 points while Bradford is fifth in assists (4.2) and sixth in steals (2.4). The Raiders, who have called Ashland High School home for the last three years while their campus facility is being built, have adapted well sporting a 28-2 CCC record over that span.

A resurgent Warner Pacific is led by Darbi Pink and Bailey Allen. Pink averages 10.3 points while Allen averages 8.8 points and 1.9 steals. As a team Warner is fifth in scoring at 67.0 and third in assists at 15.6 a game.

The rivals on I-5 will square off again after splitting their regular season matchups with each winning on the others home floor.

Northwest Christian is in the top five in nearly all conference statistical categories and is ranked atop the category of blocked shots with 88 on the year averaging 4.4 per game. The Beacons inside defensive foundation is potential freshman of the year Anamaria Virjoghe. Virjoghe averages 2.6 blocks per night to go along with her 16.0 points average. The fifteen wins in conference is a new record for NCU.

Corban enters the playoffs having won three of their last five games, including a win at Northwest Christian to close out their conference schedule. The Warriors are led offensively by Maci Bozett who averages 15.1 points per game. Bozett is stellar from the charity stripe as well with a league leading 89.7 free-throw percentage.

The College of Idaho, who handily defeated Oregon Tech last Saturday at home, will travel to Klamath Falls for a chance at another upset win.

Megan Morris leads the Lady Owls with 11.5 points per game while Nohea Waiwaiole rebounds at a clip of 7 per game. Waiwaiole also leads the team in assists dishing out 4.5 per outing.

After starting league play 3-7, College of Idaho has experienced a complete turnaround going 8-2 the second half of CCC play. Alyssa Case leads the resurgent Yotes averaging 12.1 points and 2.8 steals per game.

Tuesday's winners advance to the conference tournament semifinals on Friday night at the campus sites of the top two remaining seeds.

The Tournament Champion will automatically receive a berth in the NAIA Women's Basketball National Championship representing the Cascade Conference. In the event that the tournament is won by regular season champion Eastern Oregon, then the runner-up in the CCC tournament will earn the second automatic bid to the national tournament. The NAIA women's tournament is being held in Sioux City, Iowa March 7-13.

The 2018 CCC Championship game will be broadcast live on ROOT SPORTS Monday Feb. 26th at 7 p.m. PST. The network reaches approximately 3.2 million households across five states (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska), and delivers more than 350 live events each year - all of which are available in high definition. Fans can use the Channel Finder at rootsports.com to find the channel in their area on cable or satellite television. The game will also be available on all digital platforms for ROOT SPORTS subscribers.